


Fishing Trip

by GoofyGomez



Series: Clouis/Louisentine OneShots [9]
Category: The Walking Dead (Telltale Video Game)
Genre: AU, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-02
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-09-05 10:41:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16809055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoofyGomez/pseuds/GoofyGomez
Summary: Louis takes AJ fishing, where they share a heart-to-heart.





	Fishing Trip

“Wake up, wake up, wake up!”

AJ’s squeals, plus his jumping on the bed, woke Louis from his slumber. He’d been having the same dream he’d had the previous nights. Clementine and he would be at a makeshift altar, surrounded by their friends. Lee was there, though Louis didn’t really know what he looked like. They’d all be smiling, and Louis would say his vows, promising to love her with all his heart. It was a great dream, he gathered.

“Come on, Louis,” urged AJ, poking the older boy repeatedly. “I let you sleep in,” he added.

“Alright, I’m up, I’m up,” Louis said, holding his hands up in the air and opening his eyes slowly. He was in Clementine’s room again, but Clem was nowhere to be seen. _She probably drew morning watch_ , realized. AJ was staring at him expectantly from beside the bed, a cup of questionably-looking hot liquid held tight between his tiny hands.

“What you got there, little dude?” asked Louis, rubbing his eyes furiously trying to wake himself up.

“I made you some coffee. Clem said you’ve never tried it,” AJ informed him, handing him the cup. Louis eyed the brown substance warily and nodded, taking a sip. It wasn’t that bad, though it was pretty strong. Louis gave AJ the best smile he could muster at seven in the morning.

“This is great, little dude. You could have opened a coffee shop,” he encouraged, downing the cup in one swig. _At least it woke me up_ , Louis thought.

“You really think so?” AJ inquired, raising an eyebrow unconvinced.

“Totally,” Louis said nodding, “and _I_ would have been a regular.”

“What’s a regular?” AJ asked, frowning.

“It’s a person who goes somewhere very often, like coffee shops, for instance,” Louis explained, now standing up and grabbing his trench coat off the bedpost.

AJ nodded and followed him out of the room. They made their way to the courtyard, where Clementine was looking over the walls. Louis whistled and waved at his girlfriend, who returned the gesture and climbed down the ladder.

“Morning, sleepyhead,” she teased, giving him a kiss on the cheek.

“Good morning, Your Majesty. I trust you slept well?” he said in the most posh accent he could make.

“I did. No nightmares,” she informed him with a smile, “how about you?”

Louis smiled, remembering the particular dream he’d had, “oh, I slept perfectly.”

Clementine now turned to AJ and kneeled so they’d be on equal footing. “You do everything Louis tells you to, understand? No running off or anything,” she warned in the most motherly tone she could muster.

“Clem, I’ll be good. Don’t worry,” the small boy promised, smiling at Louis, who winked.

“Be extremely careful, Louis,” she said, turning to the teen, “I can’t stress enough how uncomfortable I am with all this,” she admitted.

“Baby relax, we’ll be fine. I’ve done this a thousand times over, always came back in one piece,” he announced, stretching his arms and showcasing his not-bitten body for her. She rolled her eyes but nodded nonetheless, letting them pass with a kiss on each of their cheeks.

A few minutes later, AJ and Louis walked out the gate and set off on their day-trip. Louis had promised AJ he’d take him somewhere really special today, and the little boy had been over the moon with anticipation. It wasn’t often than AJ got to go outside the walls, so this was a rare treat for him.

“Keep your eyes peeled for walkers, little dude,” Louis warned, heaving ‘Chairles’ on his shoulder. “They probably won’t be any problem, but it never hurts to be careful.”

“I’m always careful,” AJ boasted, drawing his gun and checking the chamber for bullets. The unnatural way with which the little kid handled a weapon so casually always made Louis queasy, but Clem had made it very clear that AJ must always have a means to protect himself.

They walked southward for about half an hour, spending their time pointing at weird plants they came across. Louis called it ‘Plant spotting’, and they gave each other point based on how exotic the plant looked.

“That’s a clear ten,” Louis argued after pointing to a yellow daffodil with orange streaks decorating its leaves.

“I stand by my choice,” said AJ, shaking his head, “that’s a four.”

“Whatever you say, little man,” Louis relented, looking around and turning to his right. “We’re almost there, stay close.”

“Can you tell me where we’re going now?” AJ asked hopefully, looking around for any signs of their destination.

“Nope, not telling. You have to see it for yourself,” Luis informed him as they arrived at a barbed fence that ran through a very overgrown yard. A stray walker was trapped between two wires, and was trying to reach for them. Louis used his pocket knife to dispose of it. He used his chair leg to lift the wire high enough for AJ to walk through, and then crawled through himself, careful to avoid the walker.

They walked through the sheaths of tall grass for barely two minutes when AJ let out a gasp. In front of them was an enormous lake that stretched out as far as the eye could see. AJ could see the tops of trees on the other bank of the lake, looming over the crystalline water with dark green leaves.

On their side of the water, there was a small wooden dock built off the coast near a ramshackle hut. Beside it was a boat, its oars tucked away on the seats and a rope attaching it to one of the pillars of the dock.

“Wow, is that a boat?” AJ exclaimed, bounding off to inspect it closely.

“It sure is, been here since all this shit started,” Louis told him, following the kid closely behind.

“Can we use it?” asked AJ looking around in search for its owners.

“Of course, that’s what we came here to do,” revealed Louis, reaching down and taking an oar from the seat. “After you,” he signaled, helping AJ onto the boat.

Once they were properly seated, Louis set to rowing. He did so slowly, taking in the gorgeous sunrise from the eastern side of the lake. He vowed to bring Clem here some other time, but today was all about AJ. Once they were far enough away from the coast, Louis bent down and searched the floor of the boat.

“What are you doing?” asked AJ warily, looking first at Louis and then at the immense expanse of water surrounding them.

“Looking for…” Louis said, struggling to get something from an old box between some rafters. “Aha, this,” he exclaimed, producing a foldable fishing rod, which he immediately opened.

“We’re fishing?”

“Yeah, this lake is swarming with trout. We can spend a nice day here, while still being useful for the rest,” he said, attaching a worm to the hook and sending the bob flying overhead.

“I guess you’re right,” conceded AJ, scanning the water for any ripples, “now what?”

“Now, we wait,” Louis said, anchoring the rod to the boat in between the seat and the box. “It’s the best part of fishing, where you can really relax and still feel like you’re doing something.”

AJ nodded and leaned on the side of the boat, eyeing the bob some twenty feet from them.

“AJ, you gotta relax, man,” urged Louis, closing his eyes and sighing contently, “These things take time.”

“I’m not looking at the rod, I’m just not a fan of water,” admitted AJ shyly looking away.

“Why not?” inquired Louis, opening one eye and looking at AJ.

“Clem and I never learned to swim, and try to stay away from it.”

“Clementine doesn’t know how to swim?” Louis asked incredulously.

“She’s scared of it, actually,” AJ said, regretting his words instantly, “don’t tell her I said that,” he pleaded.

“I won’t,” Louis chuckled, ruffling the boy’s hair. “I just didn’t think Clem would be scared of anything,” he mused.

“She told me she had bad experiences with water,” AJ explained, straining his memory, “she said she almost drowned more than once.”

“Damn, I need to get to know her more,” Louis mused, looking back at the coast. “She’s been through so much shit; I can’t believe she’s still alive.”

“She’s the toughest there is,” AJ said innocently, like it was the most obvious thing.

“That she is,” said Louis. At that moment, the fishing rod was tugged and Louis grabbed it firmly, reeling it in. He finally reeled a trout attached to the line and gingerly picked it up, throwing it into the bucket.

“What a beauty,” Louis exclaimed, pinning another worm to the hook and launching the line once more.

After that, they kept silent, enjoying the peace of the lake. Every now and then, they’d catch a fish and AJ would cheer for Louis as he reeled it in. They had this dynamic until AJ asked suddenly,

“Louis?”

“Hm?” Louis replied, glancing back at AJ.

“How was it before?” AJ inquired, “Before the monsters.”

Louis looked down and sighed. Thinking about his early years of life was always painful. Sure there had been fun memories, like the time a friend dared him to climb over the wall of an old sanatorium. _That was awesome_ , Louis thought.

But most of the memories consisted of his father. More specifically, of what his father did when he found out Louis had screwed up again. He wasn’t an achieving student, much less a straight-A one, mostly because he liked to spend his time otherwise compromised. He would dream of being an explorer like Marco Polo, so skipping class was not beneath him as he set himself out to explore the surroundings of his school in search for treasure.

Of course, the most he’d ever found was a dirty retainer, but it was the thought that counted. Unfortunately, more often than not, he would get caught. And when he did, his father would sigh, saying how disappointed he was in him and unbuckling his belt. He had no qualms of being removed from his home at the age of seven and being placed at Ericson’s.

He realized he hadn’t spoken in several minutes, and looked back at AJ, “it was – normal,” he told him. “We’d go to school, hang out with our friends and get yelled at by our parents.”

“Sometimes Clem yells at me when I mess up,” AJ put it, remembering the time he ran off while on a scavenging mission. “But I wish I had gotten to live like that. A… normal life,” he let the word roll of his tongue, foreign to him.

“Trust me, little dude, the world was already shitty before the dead started walking,” he assured the small boy.

“How so?”

“Well, people would still fight. Wars were not uncommon for people, and there was already not enough food to go around; and believe me, there was a lot.”

“Were there many people in your time?”

“Tons,” Louis replied, remembering the crowds that would form at train stations and carnivals on weekends. “Everywhere you looked, there was a person.”

“Now there’s more monsters than people,” AJ said bitterly, looking somewhere far off.

“That’s right,” said Louis awkwardly. “Maybe it was for the best, though,” Louis reasoned as he pulled another fish out of the water.

“Why would it be best?” asked AJ, clearly not following.

“People were shitty before it even started. Maybe a good shaking of the population was what humanity needed,” explained Louis, folding the rod back and stashing into the box.

AJ said nothing as he inspected the steady waters. They set themselves to admire the scenery in front of them. It was beautiful, AJ thought. As they looked at the horizon, another question occurred to the boy. “Are you and Clem gonna have a baby?”

Louis almost choked on the water bottle he was sipping and had to cough multiple times to regain his composure. AJ studied him curiously as the teen thought of a good answer to such a loaded question.

“What gave you that idea, little dude?”

“Clem told me about love,” he explained, “she said when two people love each other very much, they can have a baby. And I know you love her, and she loves you.”

“Really, she told you that?” Louis asked hopefully, ignoring the first part of the question.

“No, but I can tell,” said AJ, looking up at Louis.

“Well, even so, I don’t think we’re having a kid. Not anytime soon, anyway,” Louis assured the boy.

“How do you make them?” AJ blurted out, an innocent look on his face as Louis blushed.

“I, uh,” Louis stuttered, grabbing an oar. “I think you should ask Clem about that, little man,” he suggested, beginning to row back toward the coast.

AJ nodded and they stayed silent after that. They tied the boat firmly to the dock and walked back through the ferns on the yard. They continued their ‘Plant spotting’, and after a while, AJ declared himself the winner when he discovered a purple and blue streaked flower lurking beneath a felled log. Louis picked it up gingerly and wrapped a rag over its thorns. _This’ll make a good Valentine’s present for Clem_ , he thought.

“Just so you know, I also love you, Louis,” AJ said at one point when they were about five minutes away from the school. Louis was taken aback, but smiled broadly nonetheless.

“I love you too, little dude. We’re family now,” he replied, ruffling his afro.

When they got back, Clementine greeted them both with a hug and a kiss for Louis, who handed her the exotic flower. She examined it closely and looked curiously as Louis for an explanation.

“Think of it as an early Valentine’s gift,” he told her, kissing her cheek.

“Don’t tell me I have to find you something now,” she pouted playfully, smelling the flower and sighing.

“Them’s the rules,” he shrugged, earning a slap on his arm.

As they approached the dorm doors, Clem and AJ went ahead to freshen up in their room. Before they got inside, however, Louis cringed when AJ turned to Clementine and asked,

“Clem, where do babies come from?”

Clementine did a double take and stared at AJ horrified, before slowly turning and glaring at Louis. “Louis! What did you tell him?” she demanded.

But it was too late; Louis was already bounding off to the admin building bursting with laughter. “Love you, Clem!” he yelled back. Yes, he was definitely bringing her to the lake next chance he got.


End file.
